Gessen, M., "Sex in the Media and the Birth of the Sex Media in
Russia," in
Genders
, no. 22, 1995.

* * *

While
Little Vera
, directed by Vasili Pichul, was the most popular film in Russia in 1988,
its appearance was met with criticism and skepticism as well as
excitement. As the political climate in the Soviet Republics changed once
again, the country's relationship with its art transformed as well.
Just as Stravinsky's
Rite of Spring
had accompanied the beginning of the 20th century with atonality and
discordance in contrast to the tradition of tonality and comfortable,
predictable melodic forms,
Little Vera
marked the end of Socialist Realism, which depicted reality according to
the dictums of the Communist Party, in Soviet film.

This film deals with such unsavory issues as teenage sexuality,
alcoholism, and criminality, suggesting the failure of the socialist
experiment. As Herbert Eagle observed in
Wide Angle
, many viewers of this bold work objected to its casual portrayal of
sexuality, the crass and hostile behavior of some characters, and its
focus on the dismal features of modern Soviet life. "One might
therefore have the impression that
Little Vera
deals with a particularly antisocial, anarchic, uneducated or even
criminal stratum of Soviet society," Eagle writes. "In fact,
Little Vera
's characters are solidly mainstream and their actions rather
typical."

Little Vera
takes place in a drab, industrial Ukrainian town, Zhdanov, a standard
Soviet town shown as it really is. The atmosphere is hovered with gray
smoke; massive blocks of buildings, homes to thousands, are crowded
together. Vera, a recent high school graduate, lives with her parents and
works as a telephone operator. Her strict mother and alcoholic father are
frustrated by her surly attitude and carefree lifestyle. Written by Maria
Khemlik, Pichul's wife, the story addresses the hopelessness of
this young woman's existence and the degree to which she is defined
by the men in her life. Her brother has the elevated status of a doctor
and lives in Moscow, many miles removed from his humble beginnings; her
devoted boyfriend Andrei pursues Vera tirelessly and offers her secure
social status through traditional marriage, which she rejects. But more
importantly, as Andrew Horton argues in his review of
Little Vera
in
Film Quarterly
, "Vera exists between the sympathetic acceptance of her quietly
desperate father and the antisocial freedom represented in Sergei and
their tempestuous affair. Neither wholly modern (despite her streaked hair
and mod clothes) nor traditional, Vera is squarely caught in the middle
with little hope of escape."

As noted in
Soviet Cinematography, 1918–1991
, the success of
Little Vera
is incomparable with other films that became prominent in the first years
of
perestroika
(thaw). Various surveys indicate this film was more popular than all the
others. It can be considered a clear example of Gorbachev's
glasnost
(new openness) policy by marking a pivotal point at which the cinema
defied Communist Party values and objectives, reflexively examining and
criticizing the social and economic conditions arrived at in the late 20th
century by communism. In these early years of
glasnost
, filmmakers treated social issues in their films with an unfiltered lens
and unabashed honesty that had previously been unacceptable. This
low-budget Soviet feature was the first Soviet film with a sense of sexual
candor, the first to mention AIDS in a feature film, and the first to
acknowledge the prevalence of non-white children of white mothers.
Cinematographers considered the expansion of sexual matters in movies to
be an important aspect of the struggle against official ideology; hence,
the movies of 1986–1988 presented a challenge to traditional Soviet
ideology by dealing with the realities of sexuality, such as the sexual
activity of teenagers, which had not been addressed by official
propaganda, and by presenting sexual relationships as pleasurable in and
of themselves. The world in
Little Vera
is ripe with sensuality and passion—but plagued by dysfunction and
brutality as well.

Glasnost
allowed filmmakers to take new liberties with an audience primed for
uncharted material. Pichul's film deals with working-class subject
matter and was produced by Gorky Studios in Moscow, one of the smaller
studios previously overshadowed by Mosfilm in Moscow and Lenfilm in
Leningrad (St. Petersburg). The production quality is at times low, in
contrast to the seamless, high-quality films that had established the
tradition for Soviet films for decades.
Little Vera
is evidence of how contemporary Soviet cinema moved away from the
idealism of Socialist Realism. As Horton observes, the film "is an
important contribution to a growing number of films that honestly capture
a 'no win' mood of many Soviet young people. . . as opposed
to the forced optimism of so many Socialist Realist films of the
past." And Eagle argues that "
Little Vera
's stylistic raggedness seems intended as a deliberate appeal to
indexicality, an assertion that this is life, not Socialist
Realism."
Little Vera
, he believes, can be viewed as the work which marks the arrival of
narrative film as an index of actual life, thus it looks and feels like a
documentary filmed in a cramped environment.

Anne Williamson, writing in
Film Comment
, notes that hard-hitting features on contemporary Soviet life had been
almost non-existent for nearly 50 years before the arrival of
Little Vera
: "When Lenin declared cinema to be the most important of all the
arts, he intended to harness film's energy to the ambitions of the
Soviet state.
Under Stalin these aims were further refined in Socialist Realism, which
promptly strangled Soviet cinema. After Stalin's passing, the
effort to shape and lead the audience devolved into sentimental
drivel." In the period of
glasnost
the cinema could explore a new, ironic beauty on the screen: images
untethered by ideology and fear of political sanctions. The camera could
once again function as Sergei Eisenstein's kino eye and present
film truth. The cinema could capture life and project it on the screen,
giving audiences a Lilliputian view of themselves. This honest, cathartic
look at Russian society, one hopes, might be a move (as Vera's
father toasts before swallowing a glass of vodka) "Forward,
singing."

—Kelly Otter

User Contributions:

i recently watched this film and loved it. i was especially touched by the portrayal of family relationships, the way they can be tender and loving but also complex and fraught at the same time. this article was super informative and enlightening; it's really interesting to take a step back and think about the impact of the film on macro level... thank you!

i recently watched this film and loved it. i was especially touched by the portrayal of family relationships, the way they can be tender and loving but also complex and fraught at the same time. this article was super informative and enlightening; it's really interesting to take a step back and think about the impact of the film on macro level... thank you!

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